ELECTIONS IN GEORGIA, A WAY TO STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY , OCT 2012

Georgia, a small country in the Caucasus Mountains has a very unique historic, cultural and political development throughout history.  A mountainous country that has borders with the Black Sea, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. By XVth century, Georgia was fragmented into a number of petty kingdoms and principalities, which throughout the Early Modern period struggled to maintain their autonomy against Safavid and Ottoman domination until Georgia was finally annexed by the Russian Empire in 1801.  An Orthodox country, whose religion has somehow been respected even in the harshest times of Soviet Regime, it was independent in modern history for only very few years (1918-1921) before becoming part of the Soviet Union until 1991.  Georgia is known for its culture, poets and writers, food and the welcoming character of its inhabitants.  As the Georgian language is unique with a very ancient alphabet, difficult to understand and pronounce, it could present a challenge to its people for communication and interaction but this had never been the case.

Stalin, the second main leader of the Soviet Union, was born in Georgia, perhaps this is part of the reason why this small country in the Caucasus has preserved its remarkable buildings and churches from other eras and never became a purely Soviet type of landscape.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia became independent in 1991, and decided not to be part of the Community of Independent States (CIS) created among Russia and other former Soviet States.  Georgia claimed its democracy and took its own path to becoming an international interlocutor.  After Sheverdnadze´s Presidency, and after the Rose Revolution, Mihail Sakaashvli became the President of Georgia since 2004 and remained so for the last 9 years. Eliminating through several means the opposition that was arising in Georgia, he created a strong state under his own powers and it is only in recent years that the laws were changed so that the Georgian Parliament could rule and have increasing powers in the political sphere of the country.

An awkward moment in this evolution was the war between Georgia and Russia of August 2008. A war that meant for Georgian citizens despair, displacement, and loss of economic opportunities.  On the other hand the “de facto” entities South Ossetia and Abkhazia have declared their independence and broken away from Georgian control.  The rest of the territory is known by the acronym TAT, Territory Administered by Tiflis (the capital).  Georgians cannot pass into to these two entities and an “administrative border line” (ABL) has been created around the break-away regions.  The “de facto” leaders in these regions are working on a process of borderisation and division, while the region´s independence has only been recognized by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and two islands of the Pacific; Tuvalu and Nauru.

After the signature of the peace agreement by Medvedeev and Sarkozy (President of the EU during the crisis) the EU established a peace monitoring mechanism, a mission on the ground, known as EUMM.

The situation on the ground has been developing these last years but the suffering of Georgians who cannot go to school on the other side of the ABL, or visit relatives, or take their cows and animals, among other things, is still persistent.  Several camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) have been built, some with the funds of the Georgian government, some with the funds of other international actors, EU member states…

Last 1st October 2012 there were Parliamentary Elections in Georgia. The two main contenders on this occasion were the party of the President, United National Movement (UNM) and all the opposition parties that have been recruited somehow by a rich Georgian citizen, Ivanishvili, around the Georgian Dream (GD).

The election campaign was tough; there were a lot of legal cases of irregular funding of the parties standing for the elections, cases taken to court and even the imprisonment of some GD candidates , even for minor issues so they could not campaign.  Also some irregular cases of use of administrative funds, buses, places, events for campaign purposes arose.  A video was released 2/3 weeks before E-day, the video contained images of the abuses in certain prisons in Georgia. These abuses brought part of the population discontent with the administration to manifest against the government to ask for resignations of several persons in charge of prisons, justice… rallies became very populated and serious, and ended up achieving part of the demands.

Finally when E-day arrived, the Georgian population which, before this incident, was not confident enough to vote freely and thought that changes were impossible, became more confident and turned out to vote. Even E-night was busy and complicated, and many electoral premises registered incidents. Civil society and the people of Georgia controlled and followed all incidents so the elections could be qualified as free and democratic, still with some shortcoming and things to improve but free and democratic.  In the end, the UNM was overturned and Georgian Dream won the elections.  The Parliament has, since then, a majority of members from the opposition party and this party wants also to ease relations with their Northern neighbour Russia.  The interaction of last months of a Parliament in hands of one party and President in hands of a different party has brought some obstacles to the political life in Georgia.  The next step, decisive for the political future of the country, will be the next Presidential Elections that are foreseen for November 2013.

Meanwhile, relations with Russia started to normalise and at least commercial exchanges are taking place: direct air travel between both countries has been reestablished, the famous Borjomi water from Georgia is sold again on the huge Russian market, as well as famous and highly valued Georgian wine and other food products, so people have a larger income and live a little better.  The bottom line of all democratic aspects and support, one cannot forget, is the wellbeing of the population, and certainly one step, a large one, has been taken in our neighbouring and beautiful country that lays nestled in the Caucasus.